County Commission affirms payment for attorney, okays new home request

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by Patty Cheffey

The third attorney for the Marion County prosecuting attorney’s office will be paid from the budget following action by the Marion County Commission Monday morning.

Luke Bryan, prosecuting attorney, was present to confirm the third attorney he has will get paid, despite the fact it was not budgeted.

In 2019, Bryan had asked for funds to hire another attorney and/or investigator, and when Covid hit, that got dropped.

Since then, Bryan thought the funds would be available, but that line item had gotten dropped out of his budget.

Bryan asked for funds just to pay the attorney until the end of the year when he can add the position back into his budget.

With possibly around $8,800 needed to finish the year, County Clerk Valerie Dornberger said she would have to do some checking, but those funds could still possibly come out of Bryan’s budget.

Commissioners approved payment out of either Bryan’s budget or General Revenue with plans to revisit the issue at budget time.

In other business, Teya Stice, county improvement coordinator, said she had a request from, Harriet Hinds Latimer, a property owner on the edge of Palmyra, who wants to sell her home and build a new house on a nearby piece of property.

There are already three other homes with sceptic systems on the property, which was never rezoned because the homes were built prior to the county having planning and zoning.

However, because the property is already zoned residential, which Stice discovered after the meeting, the commissioners voted to allow Latimer to proceed as she chooses. 

Stice also reported Bleigh Construction has asked for a contact person since MECO Engineering is not overseeing the concrete work at the county’s new storage facility.

Steve Begley, Western District commissioner, will be that contact person, and Bleigh will also send daily reports on the progress of the work.

Stice noted Bleigh is also providing color samples for the county to choose the exterior color.

After receiving some complaints about the flag not being lit, the light at the Palmyra Courthouse is being examined.

Stice said the bulb has been replaced, but noted it could be a breaker issue.

She also reported the county received a $13,210 State Homeland Security Program grant to help pay for the radios. The county will use ARPA funds to pay the remainder of the cost.

Commissioners also:

• signed a local match resolution for the Taylor siren in the amount of $5,375;

•will check into why Chariton Valley informed a woman who lives east of Palmyra that she would not be getting fiber internet as they understood it to be the whole county they were contributing funds toward;

• discussed upcoming planning and zoning issues, of which there are two for the Aug. 25 meeting; and

• asked Stice to check into grant possibilities using information from the Mark Twain Regional Council of Governments recently completed survey on broadband in the county.